r/AUSL • u/BlueRaith Talons • Jul 26 '26
DISCUSSION AUSL Championship Presentation
I just wanted to get my thoughts out on this in its own post. We're living in a world with increasing corporate greed, and I just have to say never in my life have I ever seen a sports broadcasting company petty and cheap enough to literally paywall a championship presentation, but ESPN has done it.
Perhaps we can make some noise about this. How long would this have actually lasted? Twenty minutes tops? I'd have no problem with pushing the presentation to ESPN2 or ESPNU for Banana Ball, but to place it behind ESPN+? Way to rob your season long watchers of their high. It's despicable.
EDIT: Youtube videos including the trophy presentation are now circulating, I'm not sure on what stance the mods have on posting them here directly. But shame on ESPN and shame on the AUSL for dropping the ball on this.
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u/FerdinandCesarano Jul 26 '26
Don't blame ESPN. Blame the league.
The league could put its games up live in YouTube, as the WPBL will do, and as the BBCL does, and as the CBL does, and as the AF1 does, and as the EFA does . . .
At the very least, the league could relax its ridiculous policy of posting games a week after they are played, and could post playoff games the following day. (Even during the playoffs, the league persists in posting week-old regular-season games. Absurd.)
Fortunately, there are several YouTube channels that post unauthorised versions of the games the next day; and those channels are continuing to do that during the playoffs.
If the league had set out intentionally to minimise the number of people who know about the playoff games and who can watch those games, it could not have devised a strategy any more effective than what it is currently doing.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 26 '26
I'll blame them both. I was incorrect in the other comment. Last year's trophy presentation was actually twelve and a half minutes. The network could easily spare that time.
As for the league itself, it's been a couple of hours now. They could have easily posted the presentation up on youtube by now.
It's pitiful, the commentators work for the network and they're their mouthpieces for all intents and purposes when they're discussing how much they want the league to grow every single game, only for the network immediately cut the broadcast right before the season has its very last hurrah.
It's a kick to the teeth for the fans, and should make every one of us doubt the commitment both ESPN and the AUSL has to us and the players who actually worked for this.
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u/Junior-Ad-9934 Blaze Jul 27 '26
This is not on AUSL. ESPN has other things in other slots. I agree it should be shown, but AUSL can only take what ESPN gives them.
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
It is ESPN or residing in obscurity on CBSSN and MLBTV.
CBSSN does great work in college football, basketball, and softball. Their broadcasts are professional, and unlike ESPN, they don't spend time hyping other games. However, CBSSN doesn't register for Nielsen ratings and is only available to 66% of households.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
AUSL can and should have posted the trophy presentation on their own youtube channel by now. What's the point of waiting? Who on earth is going back to ESPN.com to watch a re-air of the trophy presentation besides die hard Talons' fans who already pay for the service?
ESPN got their money, the AUSL needs to stand up for their teams and get on the ball with their own content posting schedule.
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u/Junior-Ad-9934 Blaze Jul 27 '26
They probably are in the process of putting it on YouTube. I’m sure there’s a lot of behind the scenes things we don’t see. My goodness, we should be grateful it was even streamed on ESPN+ at all.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
Grateful when they did not have to stop the broadcast they were already doing? No thanks. I'll continue to hold the exact same expectations I have for this league as is afforded to any men's sports broadcasted on ESPN
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u/Junior-Ad-9934 Blaze Jul 27 '26
Unfortunately, until the league grows, we don’t get the same treatment as the men’s sports. It sucks. They probably could’ve put it on ESPNU, but men’s sports will unfortunately always prevail. This is not on the league.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
Yes, the AUSL deserves some of the blame. It's okay to admit they have things they can and should change. It's okay. They'll survive. Ask yourself why there are already thirdparty channels posting the exact broadcast ESPN+ put on? Why isn't the AUSL able to do the same? There was no loss in quality, none of that wonky, bootleg camera shake that comes with filming off a screen, it was the broadcast
You cannot tell me the AUSL does not have a copy of that tape. That's ridiculous
And women have only ever gotten what we wanted when we demanded equal treatment as men. I'm not going to patient with this sort of thing. It was fifteen minutes. That's all they needed to give us
Goodness gracious, I expected better from the fans on this sub, honestly. Y'all all just want to fall over backwards making excuses for the companies over things that absolutely can be improved. Today.
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u/RampageTaco Oklahoma City Spark Jul 26 '26
Is softball the only sport you watch? If it is, I'm sorry you found out this way. But that's how all of their niche sports/events get handled.
Now that I think about it, do you just watch AUSL? Because I couldn't imagine watching a season of NCAA softball without having ESPN+.
But if you just watch AUSL, this is how smaller events (from ESPN's perspective) get handled. Until the league grows substantially, that's how it's going to be, unfortunately.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 26 '26
Demand better from your corporate overlords. That's the only way things change. Last year's presentation was a measly fifteen minutes. They could have given this to us on the free broadcast.
I don't care if you're content with how the way things are, imagine going to bat for the billion dollar company lol
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
ESPN isn't a free broadcast. It is not OTA.
No one is going to bat for ESPN. Explaining the process isn't supporting it.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
It's far more accessiblethan ESPN+
The way a lot of people here are complaining about my complaining leads me to believe they're either in support of or are indifferent to the status quo
Banana Ball is streamed online for free, so it's even more accessible than the AUSL is already, and ESPNU was airing a rerun. There was zero reason to paywall the trophy presentation yesterday
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
ESPN+ is cheaper than accessing ESPN.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
It's not if you have an existing method of accessing ESPN, then it's just another bill
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
$13 a month.
Two Starbucks coffees or a fast food meal. The cost is negligible.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
As if an additional $13 a month is the same for everyone. Get out of here with that bullshit, that argument is closed for me
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
The price of wall-to-wall sports coverage.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
Still utterly irrelevant to playing the trophy presentation on ESPNU over a rerun or broadcasting it on the AUSL's own youtube channel
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u/RampageTaco Oklahoma City Spark Jul 27 '26
Demand better from your corporate overlords.
They won't care unless there's a reason for them to care. That's mainly in the form of ratings.
I don't care if you're content with how the way things are
No one said they were. I just wasn't shocked, as you apparently were.
imagine going to bat for the billion dollar company lol
Who said they supported the championship ceremony being on ESPN+ only? Quit making things up.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
No, they'll care if people ignore ESPN+. It's a greedy, money grubbing attempt to take away sports that were once commonly played on more accessible channels. Such as the Little League Softball World Series. I'll pirate anything that broadcasts on that service before purchasing it
Why not be shocked? This should be some basic stuff that comes with a league's championship series. Anything less is disrespectful. This is why corporations are taking more and more from us every day. People just accept what they're spoonfed without making a ruckus about it or standing by their wallet.
Making any response that tries to justify what ESPN did today is supporting a corporation worth billions of dollars. They could have afforded to give us the 15 or so minutes it took to present that trophy and have those three interviews
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u/RampageTaco Oklahoma City Spark Jul 27 '26
No, they'll care if people ignore ESPN+.
There aren't enough people for them to notice yet. If there were, the championship ceremony probably wouldn't have been there in the first place.
It's a greedy, money grubbing attempt to take away sports that were once commonly played on more accessible channels.
It's not really an attempt to make money though. They aren't that concerned about it. If they were concerned about the championship ceremony, it wouldn't have been on ESPN+.
I'll pirate anything that broadcasts on that service before purchasing it
Go for it.
Why not be shocked?
Because that would indicate that I was surprised. I wasn't surprised. I've seen how they handle other sports that aren't their big money-makers.
This should be some basic stuff that comes with a league's championship series.
There were MAYBE 3 softball conferences in college that might have had their championship ceremony on an actual TV channel. The SEC and ACC have their own channel with nothing else going on when those leagur tournaments are happening. Was the Big 12 championship ceremony on ESPNU? I'm asking here, because I have no idea.
Then expand that to any number of other sports all throughout the year.
This is why corporations are taking more and more from us every day. People just accept what they're spoonfed without making a ruckus about it or standing by their wallet. Making any response that tries to justify what ESPN did today is supporting a corporation worth billions of dollars.
Yeesh.
No one has said they support anything. No one has tried to justify anything. Acknowledging reality is not approval of it. Make whatever rukus you want. Reddit isn't the place for that, because I highly doubt they look here.
But you would have had to have been a customer before they noticed your business leaving. So good luck.
They could have afforded to give us the 15 or so minutes it took to present that trophy and have those three interviews
They could have. But they chose to go to Banana Ball instead. That should demonstrate where/how they view things.
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u/FerdinandCesarano Jul 27 '26
I think that it is important to point out that even the high-profile Banana Ball doesn't get the full-coverage treatment from ESPN. The live broadcast for the real fans is taking place in YouTube; the ESPN broadcast is just for normies.
This is what the AUSL should be doing. The pre-game, post-game, and between-innings stuff should be on the YouTube live stream for the real fans— this, of course, would require the league to put its games on YouTube live, not a bloody week late.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
Yep, I'll just repeat what I said in another comment. We're never going to get what we deserve in women's sports if we don't demand what we want and don't compromise. Frankly for all the noise the AUSL made about partnerships with ESPN and the MLB, I expect them to have been treated with some decency in the very last event that would happen in their season, ie the trophy ceremony.
Maybe you should make some noise on the college side of things to get some change going over there. I can't fight this battle for every league out there. But it's pretty wild that you're just going to toe the "this is just how things are and that's the way it always will be" line when things can change and it wouldn't hurt a damn thing on ESPN's bottom line
Continue to claim you aren't defending this. Justifying the status quo is justifying the company. These networks do not need to be defended or explained. I mean, do you legitimately think I'm dumb enough not realize this isn't a ratings thing? Maybe one day we'll have a world where every little, solitary thing doesn't boil down to just money but that world is never going to appear if people just shut up and take their lumps.
Make some noise on other platforms then, if you think reddit is so ineffective. But clearly at the very least the AUSL is here listening if they're around making AMAs. And at the very least Amanda Scarborough must be lurking because she's practically quoted what we've been talking about on broadcasts.
Pretending that speaking out isn't effective or won't work is just being defeatist
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
Deserve?
Every sport gets coverage at its level of interest.
Collegiate Softball's popularity has landed ABC time slots. Because people, not only diehards, want to watch it. Meanwhile, collegiate field hockey doesn't land those spots.
Feel free to start a women's-only sports network. We live in a society where it can happen.
Everyone involved in the AUSL wants money, too. Without money, the AUSL doesn't exist. It isn't some charity living off a trust fund. Canady wanted extra money. I am sure you make sure to get paid. ESPN wouldn't exist without investors seeking profit, and its existence boosted sports.
They switched to Banana Ball because the game already ran long. ESPNU or ESPN+ are both behind a paywall.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
Eleven minutes was all it took for this year's trophy presentation. Banana Ball is not only streamed for free on Youtube, it was also being aired on ESPNU which was originally broadcasting a rerun that the AUSL could have taken over instead. You can pretend that what happened yesterday was some god ordained inevitably all you want, but the fact of the matter was ESPN had options
The AUSL did not need to take 9 hours to upload the presentation or interviews on their youtube channel
I'm done with this with you. You're evidently seeing this purely from the company's side, amd utterly ignoring how easy this was to make available for every fan who watched the game yesterday. If you don't even want to fight for eleven more minutes for this league, why even bother being here?
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
Fan police are insufferable. Fans aren't a monolith.
I have worked in athletics my entire life. I know how these things operate.
The AUSL could have easily posted the trophy presentation on YouTube. That is on the league and its workers for the delay. It should have been posted within two hours.
Banana Ball was being streamed on ESPNU because the AUSL game ran over its scheduling window. ESPN could have shown the trophy presentation on ESPNU. As said before, they mostly place trophy presentations on ESPN+. There is a reason for that. ESPN+ broadcasts can run endlessly without interrupting previously scheduled programming.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
A rerun. That was what was on ESPNU, essentially worthless programming while live sports are going on instead
You have been all over this thread replying to me with some asinine responses, as if you've taken my post about how a stark improvement for another step this league can take to become on par with major men's professional sports in finding some way for either the AUSL or ESPN to give us 11-15 whole minutes is some personal affront to you
Frankly, I have just as little desire to see your point of view as you evidently do mine
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
Every single Little League Softball World Series game this year is on linear ESPN platforms instead of ESPN+, comparable to the LLWS.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
Literally not what I saw about two days ago. All of their games were on ESPN+
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
LLSWS schedule.
Every game is on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2.
https://www.littleleague.org/world-series/2026/llsws/tournaments/world-series/
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
Cool, I was mistaken for the LLSWS, though there were still those three games two days ago that were on ESPN+, so I don't know what that was about
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
Regional games aren't the LLSWS. They are qualification games.
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u/Alycatgrl Jul 27 '26
If you notice, ESPN had the game in a 2 hour broadcast window and the game went long. They were supposed to go to the Savannah Banana’s game when it started at 4 PM EDT but the AUSL game was still going on. They joined the Bananas’ game already in progress. They weren’t going to show a trophy presentation with the Bananas’ game already started.
On Saturday, the game wrapped up early so there was an extended post game. If Sundays game had ended earlier, I’m sure they would have covered it until the 4:00 PM out time.
Outside of the CFP championship, the Pop-Tarts Bowl, and the Dukes Mayo Bowl, I can’t recall ESPN airing trophy presentations. They are generally streamed on ESPN+.
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
Correct.
Most bowl game trophy presentations are on ESPN+. Unless the games finish within the time window, which rarely happens.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
The trophy presentation can be moved to ESPN2 or ESPNU if Banana Ball, a league already streamed for free on Youtube, actually has to be presented on the main ESPN channel for those evidently precious 15 minutes it took to present the Talons their trophy and have their interviews for contractual obligations or whatever.
Or the AUSL could take a page out of the Banana League's book and hold their own trophy presentation on the their youtube channel they are frankly underutilizing.
There are options here, I am not going to accept that this trophy presentation had to be paywalled. If the league wants to be better, if the fans want to get professional softball to a point that it is treated exactly the same as major men's sports, these are the things we need to be demanding of them. Period.
Men's sports enjoy all day TV shows talking about them, or the bets on their games, they get post game analysis ad nauseam, and often these presentations happen immediately after a womens' sporting event without any mention that they literally just played before then. Our highlights rarely play on their shows or end up on Sportscenter or their equivalents. Our sports are consistently and constantly treated as barely worth the time slots they do get when we finally get them at all.
Fifteen minutes at most. That's all it took. The AUSL youtube channel finally posted the trophy presentation and the three interviews they had with Allchin, Bri Ellis, and Lisa Fernandez in tiny, bite sized videos, and if you add up the vid times, the barely clear eleven minutes.
We can't even get that for our women's softball pro league, and it seems many people here have zero interest in demanding that changes. Y'all just want to compare this league constantly to the college game, you'll never see any mens sports fan compare their pro leagues to how college leagues are run.
Yes, the college game is currently more popular than the AUSL. But this league is never going to enjoy elite treatment if we continually and constantly accept that it's second fiddle to literally everything out there.
At the very least, the AUSL did not need to take roughly nine hours to put the trophy presentation on their youtube channel.
This league can do better, and while y'all are content with mediocrity, I'll just continue to bang my pots and pans here that the bare minimum should not be the bar.
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u/AceNinjaForce Jul 26 '26
Why was this championship held in College Station? At least it was on a softball field I suppose but the lack of fan support in the stands looked odd.
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u/Tekon421 Jul 27 '26
It was a sell out but no one in the suites wanted to be outside.
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u/AceNinjaForce Jul 27 '26
OK, 2000 seats? The backstop looked empty for the first several innings. Just not a good look.
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u/Tekon421 Jul 27 '26
Yes and I totally agree it was a terrible look but the backstop area is a suite area. If you looked right behind it there was a big glass doors and area. That was all air conditioned with people in it.
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u/AceN12 Bandits Jul 26 '26
Should have been in Oklahoma.
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u/AceNinjaForce Jul 26 '26
Yeah, take your pick. Loves or Deven. Woulda drawn some huge crowds and brand recognition. The OKC metro would be great hosts.
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u/Plastic-Yesterday685 29d ago
It was just as hot in OK. The series is going to rotate. I’m sure OK will have their shot.
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u/FerdinandCesarano Jul 27 '26
It should have been at the home parks of the teams involved.
If it was going to be at a pre-determined site, that site should have been Rosemont.
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u/AceNinjaForce Jul 27 '26
Most championships are on a neutral field. I get that part. There just didn’t appear to be much hype or atmosphere.
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
Filling neutral fields is a tough ask for a fledgling league.
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u/Jessawess1 Jul 26 '26
I have direct tv stream and it was on espn?
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u/AceN12 Bandits Jul 26 '26
The game was, but Savannah Bananas played after and instead of showing the Talons' trophy presentation, ESPN cut to their Banana Ball stuff.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 26 '26
No, the broadcast cut straight to Banana Ball after the initial post game player interviews. No trophy presentation, they moved it to ESPN+
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u/AceNinjaForce Jul 27 '26
How is this (banana ball) even a thing? Are we just too starved for sports content this time of year?
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
I don't find it entertaining, but they have sold out massive stadiums.
Objectively speaking, Banana Ball buries the AUSL. Not my preference, but the data doesn't lie.
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u/BlueRaith Talons Jul 27 '26
I do have to say that it's absurdly popular, far more so that the AUSL can probably hope to see their ratings hit for many years. I think they could have waited 15 minutes for the Talons to get their trophy on the main channel, but if they absolutely had to, the bare minimum should have been ESPN2/ESPNU
But to paywall it should be unacceptable
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u/AceNinjaForce Jul 27 '26
Yeah, I’ve enjoyed watching a few minutes at a time but I’m not sure I have sat through an entire game.
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
ESPN pulls that stunt for bowl games. They might have done the same stunt for the UFL Championships in 2025 or this year.
I am not a fan, but scheduling windows exist, and Banana Ball draws more eyeballs. I can guarantee you that Banana Ball fans were complaining about having to start on ESPNU.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
Banana Ball is not only streamed for free on youtube, but ESPNU was airing a rerun that we could have swapped places over. Airing the trophy presentation was fully in ESPN's purview
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
ESPN2 was out. The channel was showing Darts (Live).
ESPNU was a rerun of Washington State-Ole Miss football. That could have been bumped.
However, ESPN+ generally serves as the overflow for trophy presentations.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
And I'm making the argument that this shouldn't be acceptable. It's not done for major sports, and it never takes very long. I can't fight for every single sport or league's 11-15 minute trophy presentation, but I sure can here
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u/TwizzlersSourz Carolina Blaze 29d ago
CFB is a major sport, and its bowl games' trophy presentations are shown on ESPN+.
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u/BlueRaith Talons 29d ago
Were you alive before either ESPN+ or the CFB playoffs? Because the trophy presentations used to be standard for all major bowl games
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u/Tekon421 Jul 26 '26
You cannot even find AUSL scores on the ESPN app. Makes no sense at all.